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I use CPack in my CMakeLists.txt to create an installer for my test application. This is my code which generates the start menu entry

set(CPACK_GENERATOR "NSIS")
set(CPACK_START_MENU_SHORTCUTS "${PROJECT_NAME}")
set(CPACK_PACKAGE_EXECUTABLES "${PROJECT_NAME}" "${PROJECT_NAME}.exe")
include(CPack)

After installation I see my start menu folder and when opening it there are my application .exe and the uninstaller. After ~15s the uninstaller disappears magically.

Has anyone a clue why this happens? The application .exe stays.

Programmierkartoffel
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2 Answers2

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@RaymondChen has the answer to your question:

A customer reported that their installer creates a shortcut on the Start menu called Uninstall Contoso Deluxe, but a few seconds after their installer completes, the Uninstall Contoso Deluxe icon disappears from the Start menu. The main Contoso Deluxe shortcut is still there. What’s going on?

The uninstaller shortcut is removed from the Start menu to reduce clutter. You can uninstall apps from the Apps page in Settings, or from the Programs and Features control panel (formerly known as Add or Remove Programs). You can also get to the uninstaller by right-clicking Contoso Deluxe and selecting Uninstall.

Community
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Former contributor
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This is by design, Windows 8 and later will hide "useless" shortcuts.

Why does my app’s uninstaller disappear from the Start menu?

The uninstaller shortcut is removed from the Start menu to reduce clutter. You can uninstall apps from the Apps page in Settings, or from the Programs and Features control panel (formerly known as Add or Remove Programs). You can also get to the uninstaller by right-clicking Contoso Deluxe and selecting Uninstall.

Adding an uninstaller icon to Start menu is triply redundant, and it puts uninstallers in a high-traffic area of the user interface, when users are mostly looking for apps to run, not apps to uninstall.

The uninstaller shortcut is still there, so your uninstaller won’t get confused when it tries to delete the uninstaller shortcut. But the Start menu doesn’t show it.

Anders
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